Apple wins big at 2008 T3 Gadget Awards
By Dave Parrack
I’m personally not a big fan of Apple or its products. Oh, I can see the appeal: they’re sleek, stylish, and technologically advanced, but there’s just something I don’t really like about Apple. So I usually choose its rivals instead. But I’m in the minority, which is why Apple has cleaned up at the 2008 T3 Gadget Awards.
This is the second year that the T3 Gadget Awards have been held, and they are a good indicator of which tech gadgets have entered the market successfully over the past year, and more importantly, performed as well as consumers expected.
There are 15 awards handed out, with the winner of 11 of those decided by public vote. The vote is held between May and September every year, and this year saw more than 54,000 votes counted. Most of which, it seems, went to Apple products.
The Garmin T3 Gadget Awards 2008 winners:-
Gadget of the Year – Apple iPod Touch
Best Music Gadget – Apple iPod Touch 32GB
Best Imaging Gadget – Nikon D60
Drop Dead Gorgeous – Audi R8
Best New Media – BBC iPlayer
Gaming Gadget – Wii Fit
Toy of the Year – Guitar Hero
Commuter Gadget – Apple iPhone
Gadget Candy – MacBook Air
Retailer of the Year – Dixons.co.uk
Innovation of the Year – Sony XEL-1 OLED TV
Green Gadget – Honda Civic Hybrid
Home Gadget – Sky HD
Hi Def Award – Sony PS3
Gadget you can’t live without – TomTom GO930
The biggest award is ‘Gadget of the Year’, which this year went to the Apple iPod Touch. I’m actually quite surprised that the Touch won, not because it’s a bad product, but because it would surely have had stiff competition from the 3G iPhone. The iPhone did win ‘Commuter Gadget’, but the big one eluded it.
The iPod Touch also won ‘Best Music Gadget’, while Apple’s winning streak was concluded by the Macbook Air winning ‘Gadget Candy’, an award that recognizes design and overlooks actual usability and features. Which is why the Air won.
Wii Fit won the ‘Gaming Gadget’ award, which is unsurprising as, not only has the Nintendo Wii ripped the more powerful PS3 and Xbox 360 apart in terms of sales over the past 12 months, the Wii Fit managed to go beyond being merely a game, and in to the realms of lifestyle device.
I’m not sure about the TomTom GO930 winning ‘Gadget you can’t live without’ because not being a driver means I can live without one perfectly happily.
2008 has clearly been a big year for Apple, and these awards prove that. In light of the current economic crisis, whether 2009 will be quite such a good year, not only for Apple but tech companies everywhere, remains to be seen.
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Stumble It!
October 10th, 2008
Get with the program man. Apple rules!
October 11th, 2008
You’re not in the minority Dave. Awards mean NOTHING. You can’t “win” a category you’ve already completely conquered (iPod), and winning awards for computers or laptops hasn’t made for any major change in Apple’s market share.
Um, duh the Wii won the console category. But I guess you missed PS3’s award?
I suspect if the basis of these awards was more worldwide, the results would have been much different.